


Escapades

by halbermarco



Category: Laid Bare by P.B., Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Except it's a small storage space, F/F, Inspired by New Girl, Mentions of alcohol, Trapped In A Closet, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 18:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halbermarco/pseuds/halbermarco
Summary: The first red flag is Brenan’s cheer of “Dare!”. The second one is Youri’s absolutely diabolical smirk.





	Escapades

**Author's Note:**

> in case anyone reads this  
> im tired so forgive me if it's bad ill edit it tomorrow thank you

To be completely fair, her friends were considerably drunk at this point. After all, all of them were more or less reasonable people, with more or less reasonable jobs. No one could ever blame them for wanting a bit of a downtime, a bit of a let-loose after a hard day at work or university, or both in Brenan’s case. So even Tus, whose stance on ‘letting loose’ varied every other occasion, found herself quite unable to be genuinely resentful when they started a game of truth or dare, just to live a little like they did _‘in the old days’_ – although Tus knew for a fact that both Aoi and Jas, and of course herself, never participated in such ridiculous games, mostly because no one had wanted them to play along due to immense unpopularity and the destruction of one’s reputation should you be one of those who didn’t care about that.

Back to the current situation Tus was facing; she regarded her friends sitting in a circle, Jas being the one to actually bring an empty bottle of _wine_ (oh good Lord, had she already emptied that?) for them to use. At this very moment, Tus had already been pretty wary and grumpy, but according to Aoi, _she was always like that, anyway_ , so she did her best to indulge her increasingly wasted companions. Needless to say, she hid her reaction of relief whenever the bottle didn’t land on her, but still always laughed whenever Devan or Aoi had to do the absurdest of dares, or even roared with laughter when Youri almost spilled one of Darwyn’s best-hidden secrets no one was supposed to know about. Especially not Tus, a ruthless personality who would never cease to tease her archenemy about it whenever she would get the chance.

Although, as it is the natural progress of things, her luck had to run out sooner or later and certainly would not last all evening. After a while of getting away with it, the bottle’s fateful upper end pointed to none other than Brenan Dimooney. Brenan was the only person in their group Tus was particularly fond of – not that she would admit that to anyone by her own free will – and unsurprisingly, the only one Tus feared for. Knowing her friends’ occasional viciousness (all in good fun of course), Brenan wouldn’t be let off the hook easily. With her involved, Tus had her share of dread as well, because although Tus never professed it out loud, everybody in their group – yes, even Devan – knew about Tus’ little (or not so little anymore) crush on her. And ever since Youri had gotten news of such a development, they made it their mission to bring them together – this meddling of theirs was devilish work which Tus greatly opposed.

But unfortunately, it was Youri themselves spinning the bottle, with a gleam in their eyes that Tus could immediately categorize under mischievous behavior, and not the alcohol they had been consuming – which was not a lot to begin with, anyway, but even a little seemed to be a catalyst to any of Youri’s endeavors. Lately, though, Youri had to chalk up some miscarrying attempts in getting her second and third favorite persons in the world together, as Tus saw through their charades pretty early on and prevented Youri’s plans from being successful – on Youri’s end, at least. Brenan, a normally dangerously perceptive individual, always laughed at Youri’s odd antics, oblivious to their original intentions, and took a liking to chastising Tus for not being fair to Youri when she stood in the way of them. So, really, Youri must have been planning revenge.

The first red flag is Brenan’s cheer of “Dare!”. The second one is Youri’s absolutely diabolical smirk.

“I dare you to get into that closet with our dear Filly right over here ‘cause she must be pretty bored. Considering the bottle didn’t land on her once tonight.”

Brenan only shrugged, and Tus, albeit glaring not-so-subtly at Youri, couldn’t help but feel relieved. But there was another red flag waving, “Aaaaand, I won’t let you out until you’ve kissed.”

Tus shouldn’t have been as surprised at this as she was, intensifying her glare and quietly signaling to Youri that there was not going to be a tomorrow for them if they decided to actually go through with this madness. However, Youri being a Gantuk and Tus’ sibling, ruthlessness wove itself through their genes. Giving in or wasting opportunities was not an option. It was no use.

And this was the story of how Tus found herself locked in a small storage room with Brenan Dimooney, her long-time heart throb, close friend and roommate.

The room itself was fairly large considering proximity was what Youri had aimed for, but they also knew how small spaces could cause a panic attack on Brenan’s end. They might have been ruthless, but not cruel, so Brenan and her could sit a foot apart, even further if they really wanted to. Nevertheless, Tus had many reasons to rethink said statement, one being the absolutely stunning woman next to her who was, two, smiling at her in expectation, and three, probably waiting for Tus to do something and making the situation painfully awkward.

Having none of that and already under too much pressure, Tus started pounding on the door, yelling angrily, “Youri, I swear to god, if you don’t let us out this instant, I am going to kill you and never fucking regret it.”

“I hate Youri sometimes,” Tus then said when there was no response, and sat on the ground, back against the door. Brenan chuckled, “No, you don’t. They’re just having fun, Tus,” before settling down closer to her, their knees touching.

From outside the door, they could hear muffled cheers from their friends, demanding them to “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” over and over again. “Yes, at my expense, as per usual,” Tus mumbled sullenly, preparing herself to yell back again. But Brenan was faster than her, producing her phone from her pockets and kissing Tus quickly on the cheek, her phone up in the air as if to take a picture. And when Tus thought she was not brilliant enough already, Brenan showed it to her, grinning, “Maybe they’re drunk enough to accept this.” Before Brenan had sent it to the group chat, Tus took the remaining two seconds to admire the picture Brenan had snapped.

It was fairly obvious how flustered and surprised Tus was when Brenan had kissed her; her cheeks had lit up in a rosy color and her eyes had blown wider than the ocean. On the other side, Brenan looked as gorgeous as ever – rosy cheeks were a common thing with her, only adding to the beauty of her face. On the picture, her eyes had closed, and her lips had curved into a smile when she had come in to place the kiss.

“Guys, let us out, we’ve kissed!” Brenan suddenly proclaimed, startling Tus out of her trance, “See? I’ve sent you a picture.”

There was a silence when everyone checked their phone, but, almost as soon as they had taken it out, Tus heard them booing very loudly and very dramatically. _Typical_. Tus let her head fall back against the door with a loud thud, rolling her eyes and groaning to herself. Moments later, she registered someone calling to them, “Just give Brenny a tender, sensual kiss and we will let you right out.”

Tus was horrified when she placed the voice to be Devan’s.

She tried to free herself from this burden by knocking repeatedly and desperately, only to be ignored once more. “You all suck and can go to hell!”

Next to her, Brenan sighed, and Tus could tell she was already tired of her theatrics, “What is the big deal, Tus? It’s just a kiss.”

Turning her attention away from the door, Tus regarded her carefully, a frown already plastered on her face. One simple sentence had put her off just now, and she couldn’t find a way to ask Brenan what she meant by ‘It’s just a kiss’. Because it would be anything but _just a kiss_ to Tus, though she couldn’t let Brenan know that.

“I mean,” Brenan continued, “the longer we wait, the more insufferable they get. And I do not intend to spend the night in here, or do you, by any chance?”

Sucking it up, Tus responded, agreeing, “Okay, fine. Let’s do this.”

“Okay.”

“Yep.”

“This is not a big deal.”

“Yeah, let’s just do it.”

“Okay, cool.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither moving an inch.

“Well, uh…”

“Maybe I should just…” Tus said, leaning in with her lips puckered up strangely. Her hands were placed beneath Brenan’s face, cupping it gently but firmly. “Ready?”

Brenan laughed, “I’m not kissing you with that face. You can’t do that.”

Tus tried not to sound offended, “what face? I did not do anything.”

“You did, and it was your expression, the way your lips just,” she trailed off, gesturing half-heartedly towards her own lips when she mirrored the weird form Tus’ lips had taken on before.

“I did not do that,” Tus mumbled defensively to which Brenan only countered, “You did, and you can’t do that with your face, it’s distracting.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll do something different with my face, and just… get this over with, okay?”

“Okay, all right, great, let’s try this again.”

This time, Tus full-on grinned, baring her teeth as if she was a wild predator going for prey; thus, it didn’t look better, at all, as Brenan moved away from her chuckling again, “What the hell, are you trying to eat me?”

Finally having found her last straw, Tus’ hands fell from Brenan’s face and she stood up, “okay, I can’t do this.”

“Well, Filias, you can’t try to ram your teeth into my mouth and expect…”

“Let me out, you bastards! Please, I’ll do anything.”

“… But kiss me,” Brenan retorted quietly, and Tus thought to hear a bit of remorse in her voice. Shaking it off, she continued pounding on the door for another minute, all to no avail. Eventually, she admitted defeat and saw Brenan staring up at her. In a matter of seconds, Brenan was standing next to her, a hand on her shoulder, when suddenly, the cheers started up once more.

“Will you quit being childish and kiss me!”

“No, I’m not gonna kiss you.”

“God, Tuskgon, just kiss me already!”

“Brenan, stop!”

“Kiss me!”

“No, not like this!” Tus finally yelled, breath catching in her throat as soon as the words had left it. Brenan only stared at her quizzically.

“What do you—what do you mean? What does that mean?”

Immediately, Tus faltered beneath her insistent gaze and had to look away, moving as far away from her as physically possible. Of course, she had to go and fuck this up by letting her mouth run wild, by letting her impulsiveness get the better of her again.

To try and save what little dignity she had left, Tus started to explain herself; poorly, but she tried, “No, I… I didn’t mean—you know this is not what I… I mean you, uh. That’s not like… that because—of course you…”

Turning towards the door, she sought for another chance at redemption. Her method had come down to pleading and begging, because no matter how much of a fool she would be making of herself in front of her friends, it couldn’t turn out worse than what little she had left after this slip-up.

“Guys, come on. I… please let me out, I don’t think I can breathe right anymore,” she whined with a weak voice, only half-pretending. Whatever face Brenan was making went unnoticed by her, as she stuck to pointedly ignoring Brenan’s presence in the room. Although Brenan never did escape her mind when the door had finally opened, and Tus tumbled out, looking at a mixture of worried glance and remains of self-satisfied smirks.

“Thank you, Youri, for this opportunity,” she murmured in Youri’s direction who had just come down from their high to realize the horrible outcome this dare had caused. There is no bite in Tus’ voice, only miserableness and anger, but Youri could figure out that this anger wasn’t directed at them or Brenan, but at Tus herself. Tus quickly made her way out of the living area and rushed into her room, shutting the door with a loud bang, leaving all of her friends and the small party confused and completely in the dark.

 

Needless to say, it didn’t take long for her friends to take flight from the situation afterwards. Tus had refused to open the door to talk to anyone, even after Aoi and Jas had continuingly knocked for the majority of the time. Youri had only said “Sorry” before leaving, and Tus felt a pang of guilt for not replying. After all, it wasn’t their fault Tus couldn’t keep her mouth shut when she needed it to.

When the apartment was quiet, Tus feared for a confrontation with Brenan. It was inevitable, but that didn’t mean Tus had to enjoy it – because who liked being rejected by the person you were in love with, who was also one of your closest friends and your roommate?

And sure enough, there it was, the knock that would change it all, accompanied by a voice Tus couldn’t help but love and dread all at the same time, “Tus? Can we talk? Please?”

She got up from the bed, walking over to the door and opened it. Taking a deep breath, Tus focused all her energy on staying calm and in one place, as her instinct to just bolt had already taken ahold of her mind.

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry,” Brenan began. _This is not your fault_ , Tus wanted to scream at her, but didn’t, out of fear, out of anger at herself, she had grown tired of having to explain herself.

“I shouldn’t have forced you,” _you didn’t force me_ , “I mean, I didn’t even think I could be so… cruel,” _my dear Bren, you are anything but cruel._

“Don’t be sorry. You didn’t ruin the whole mood like this party-pooper over here who couldn’t keep her dismay to herself if it meant life or death,” Tus laughed it off.

“Dismay? Had that much of a problem to kiss me?” Brenan attempted to tease back, but it was as clear as day what lay underneath. Sadness, defeat – maybe even contempt. Tus couldn’t take it.

She had to take her chances now, or the odds of reconciliation were going to be virtually zero.

“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s like I said when you… I didn’t want it to be like that.”

“It being?” Brenan asked, shock written all over her face and a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Tus tried her best so she wouldn’t take it away.

“Our first… kiss,” Tus murmured quietly.

“Oh,” was all Brenan was able to reply.

“Yeah.”

Tus watched Brenan’s gaze shift towards her mouth and back up to Tus’ eyes again, but didn’t mention it out loud. Brenan stood there, close to her but not close enough, but making no attempt at inching closer to Tus whose heart was going to jump out of her chest, leaving her more dead on the spot than she already was.

“Well, uh,” Tus started, “we should sleep now. Gotta catch up so I won’t be grumpy when I’ll have to apologize to everyone tomorrow… or today, for that matter.”

“You’re right, of course,” Brenan mumbled absent-mindedly, but wore a smile nonetheless, “good night, Tus.”

“Good night, Bren.”

Now or never.

Having reached out an arm before to put on Tus’, Brenan turned around for her room on the other side of the hallway, when she was yanked back all of a sudden. A grip on her wrist had startled her enough as it was, soft lips on hers were a whole different story to tell. Those were insistent, and desperate and feverishly fast-moving, her breathing had stopped for a second or two. She kissed back with the same enthusiasm, only pulling back for the tiniest bits of air to never be too long from Tus.

It felt like a great relief to both of them, like they had won something they didn’t think they could ever have but still hoped for in quiet moments of longing and belief.

When they did pull back, Tus rested her forehead against Brenan’s, smiling dazedly at her and mumbling, “I meant something like that.”

Brenan didn’t need another second before she kissed Tus for what would not be the last time that night.

 

 


End file.
